Founding partnerships

Building an organisation is exhilarating; it’s part sprint, part marathon, navigating peaks of elation and valleys of despair, all fuelled by caffeine and dreams. Founders have to keep an eye on everything; the market, investors, partners, product development, financial runway, marketing, customers, staff…  In the scramble to stay on top of it all, the one thing that’s often glossed over is the relationship between the partners. Until, of course, cracks appear… 

Going into business with someone is like getting married to them; you’re starting something that may outlive either of you, it involves complicated compromises, there are high-consequence financial implications, you need extreme alignment on the important things, tolerance of difference on the less important ones, and agreement about the distinction. And the partnership doesn’t strengthen without attention. These things are obvious, so why are they often overlooked? (50% of marriages end in divorce, a greater proportion of business partnerships split). Because candid, open conversations about differences are hard, and the skills to have them are not taught in business school. Because working on the partnership requires dissolution of the happily ever after illusion, and replacing it with a mature, pragmatic perspective that can handle the nuance of reality. 

Those with the foresight and courage to work on strengthening the partnership, develop a solid core at the centre of the organisation which holds firm during the difficult periods that inevitably lie ahead. If resilience is a goal, this is a good place to start. 

The work in this area involves equipping senior teams with the skills and confidence to raise and work through inter- and intra-personal issues as they arise. Partners must learn to manage the fear that conflict or misalignment is terminal. On the contrary, when a top team under big delivery pressure describes their dynamic as perfectly harmonious and free of disagreement, it’s a reasonably sure sign that something big is under the carpet. Friction between leaders is a sign that leaders are invested and passionate, not dysfunctional.

My goal is to take teams from seeing this work as an inconvenient necessity, to one of their competitive advantages. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.